>>>Art Ryan tells young people
aspiring to be successful: Focus
on being good at something.
>>>Learning something really well
is a confidence booster, he says.
And, once a skill is acquired, it is
easier to take risks.
>>>“You can always go back to
something you’re good at,” he says.
>>>For Ryan, that one thing was
data processing. After earning a
math degree from Providence
College and serving two years in the
U.S. Army, Ryan got his big break.
He was sent to school for electronic
data processing. With that skill, he
wasn’t sure if he’d become a schoolteacher
or an actuary.
>>>He knew he was good with
numbers.
>>>His career took him to Control
Data Corp.—the turning point in his
career—and eventually to a software
development business, where
he stayed for eight years.
>>>In 1984, he landed at Chase
Manhattan’s retail bank and, in1990, at age 42, became its chief
operating officer.
>>>Ryan says his early days as the
head of Chase were also his most
challenging. The struggling company
was facing a drop in its stock price.
>>>“There was enormous pressure,” he says, adding that the company
wanted him to have a short-term
and long-term plan to restore faith
in the bank.
>>>He did it, and learned from that
time in his life.
>>>Ryan’s success rebuilding of
Chase led Prudential Securities to
ask him to become its chairman
and chief executive officer in 1994,
a role in which he still serves today.
>>>As Chase’s leader, Ryan visits all
of the company’s sites and tries
to reach customers, but also as
many of its 40,000 employees as
possible by holding town meetings.
At those meetings, he tries to make
the company mission relevant to
everyone’s situation.
>>>And, he listens.
>>>Ryan listens, for example, to his
fellow community members in
Newark as he works to turn the city
into a thriving metropolis.
>>>That dedication to the city is a
loyalty Prudential has shown for
decades. After the race riots of 1967,
all but one of 130 companies based in
Newark left.Prudential was that one.
>>>Ryan has a strong personal
interest in Newark as well.
>>>“We have to understand the
importance of our cities,” he says. “It’s
the heart of our arts and entertainment,
our social contact and ways
people can bring ideas together.”
>>>Under Ryan’s leadership,
Prudential is a primary supporter of
efforts to turn Newark into what he
hopes it will eventually become—a
thriving 24-hour-a-day city.
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>>>To make that happen, though,affordable and market-rate housing
needs to be built.
>>>By investing money in Newark’s
future, Ryan hopes that the community’s
positive changes will spill over
into a more-educated and morediverse
work force as well.
>>>Ryan also hopes to improve the
standards for educating high school
students, which will hopefully prepare
them to enter the work force.
He is a leader of Achieve, a bipartisan,
nonprofit organization created
in 1996 by the nation’s governors
and business leaders to help states
raise academic standards to prepare
children for post-secondary education,
work and citizenship.
>>>Ryan also serves as co-chair of
New Jersey United for Higher School
Standards, an organization Prudential
created in 1999.
>>>Ryan’s impact on Newark is profound,
says Lawrence P. Goldman, president
and chief executive officer of the
New Jersey Performing Arts Center.
>>>“Art—and so does his wife—goes
very significantly beyond what is
required of a corporate executive,”
>>>Goldman says. “Art could do a quarter of
what he does and he would still be considered
a major contributor.”
Goldman says that Ryan has been
a great adviser over the years when he
has faced management dilemmas. “Not only does he have superb judgment,
he has highly evolved human
sensibilities,” Goldman says.
>>>But, for Ryan, it’s all about doing
what is right.
>>>Ryan’s community and professional
work all align with his main
conviction—corporate responsibility
for human rights.
>>>He’s constantly inspiring people to
think about the right thing to do. For
Ryan, that is giving back to the community
that gave to him years ago—back
when he was good at just one thing.
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